The concept is attested from the 16th century as the Latin (terra)continens (“continuous [land]”), and from the 17th century in French (continent) to denote the European continent. It developed in the 19th century to refer to the five great land masses of the earth [3]. However, the original usage was sometimes preserved, for example in the continental system (imposed by Napoleon in 1806) or the Continental Shelf (the underwater land…